Co-defendant says he watched Vandergrift woman's murder and helped burn her remains

Jun. 3—An Export man told a Westmoreland County jury Wednesday that, just a day after Ronny Cable said she had feelings for him, he watched another man beat her over the head with a hammer and choke her to death. He said he then spent the next 12 hours helping to burn her remains at a Derry Township camp site.

"I froze up," Devin Akamichi testified during the first day in the homicide trial of Walter Cable. "She tells him to stop, but it was too late, she passed away. I froze up and I was scared. I didn't know what to do."

The prosecution contends Walter Cable, 28, of Greensburg planned to rob and kill Ronny Cable on Feb. 17, 2017. Walter Cable is charged with criminal homicide, robbery, conspiracy and abuse of a corpse.

Akamichi, 28, also is charged with criminal homicide, robbery and abuse of a corpse in connection.

He testified for nearly three hours Wednesday and denied any role the killing. He said Walter Cable threatened her life hours before she was killed and that he reluctantly helped burn her body, a process that took well over 12 hours and included a break when both men drove to Delmont to buy food and gasoline before they returned to the woods to keep the blaze burning.

He told jurors Walter Cable stole money and drugs from the woman. After she was killed, Walter Cable folded her arms on her chest before the men gathered twigs and branches and set fire to the body. As the fire burned, Walter Cable used a shovel to break up the woman's bones, Akamichi testified.

Akamichi said they left the camp site the next night after Cable determined the body was sufficiently burned.

"We couldn't see anything left of Ronny, just a pile of bones and dirt," Akamichi testified.

Akamichi told jurors he and Ronny Cable dated for several months in 2016. During that time, she moved in briefly with Walter Cable and his mother before she relocated to Vandergrift. He testified both men were at a Greensburg gas station on Feb. 15 when they randomly met Ronny Cable, who invited them and another man to her home that night to drink and use drugs.

Akamichi testified that, during the gathering, he and Ronny Cable had sex and rejected Walter Cable's request to join them. Akamichi told jurors he and Walter Cable returned to Vandergrift the next night, went shopping at a local Walmart, purchased vodka and later went out to a bar in Oklahoma Borough.

At the bar, Walter Cable told Akamichi to turn off his phone because he planned to kill Ronny Cable. As they drove out to Derry Township, she and Akamichi had sex in the back seat of the car as Walter Cable drove, he testified.

Assistant District Attorney Pete Caravello, in his opening statement, told jurors the evidence will show Walter Cable was guilty of both first- and second-degree murder. He said Cable plotted to rob and kill his victim.

Akamichi initially denied any knowledge of Cable's disappearance or that he knew anything about her death when first questioned by police. He eventually confessed and took police to the campsite where they found her charred remains along with two of her rings, Caravello said.

Defense attorney Tim Andrews, in his opening statement, told jurors Akamichi should not be believed and continually lied and mislead police during seven different interviews in the days and weeks after Ronny Cable was reported missing by her mother.

"He is the only witnesses to claim he sees this happen," Andrews said of Akamichi. "He's the one who gives them pretty much everything."

Akamichi will return to the witnesses stand when the trial resumes Thursday.

Ronny Cable's mother testified Wednesday that she never met Walter Cable and said he and her daughter were not related.

Beverly Richarson of Latrobe, said Ronny Cable, the mother of two teenage boys, struggled with drug addiction since age 16. She last saw her daughter in late January 2017 and had no contact with her after Feb. 10, when they texted about birthday party arrangements for one of Ronny Cable's children.

Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Rich at 724-830-6293, rcholodofsky@triblive.com or via Twitter .